Russia appears to be turning to microchip manufacturers in China aiming to avoid western sanctions which have boosted demand for bank cards linked to the Mir payment system, as explained by an executive working with the domestic payment system.
Moscow has been cut off from nearly half of its $640 billion in gold and foreign exchange reserves and the global financial system by Western sanctions imposed on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
Oleg Tishakov, a board member of the National Card Payment System (NSPK) said that since European suppliers have stopped cooperating with Moscow following sanctions and Asian manufacturers suspend production amid a coronavirus pandemic, Russia is facing a shortage of microchips.
Without giving further details, Tishakov told a conference on April 5:
“We are looking for new microchip suppliers and [have] found a couple in China, with certification process ongoing.”
International payment cards MasterCard and Visa have stopped servicing Russian accounts abroad and some of Russia’s largest banks no longer have access to the SWIFT global banking messaging system. Last month, Mir’s connection to Apple Pay was cut off.
According to Reuters calculations based on the system’s data, over 2 million Mir cards were issued by NSPK between the end of 2021 and March, with total cards outstanding now at 116 million.
Increased demand for the domestic card, which some now issue in a co-brand with China’s UnionPay, an alternative payment system to MasterCard and Visa for purchases by Russians abroad, has been reported by all major Russian banks.
Some banks in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Vietnam, Turkey, and Georgia breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, also accept Mir cards.
